Capitol now has a House divided against itself

Updated 12:29 am, Friday, May 3, 2013

AUSTIN — After roughly four months of playing nice, House lawmakers finally are taking off the gloves.

With 24 days left in the 83rd session, the congenial attitude that's permeated the House — on the surface at least — is all but kaput.

For evidence, look no further than the tumultuous tenor of recent floor debates.

Last week, the House imploded over the state lotto panel, first voting to disband the Texas Lottery Commission on “moral grounds,” then reversing.

Later, it erupted into an hours-long scuffle over voting rights. And just days ago, a Houston Democrat used a procedural maneuver to torpedo a billion-dollar water plan being pushed by Republican House leadership.

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“This is not an unusual personality for this time in the session. It just gets tense,” said Jim Pitts, a Republican from Waxahachie and the lower chamber's top budget writer. “And I know we got some bumpy days ahead.”

Flare-ups in the House are nothing new and lawmakers say fights are to be expected as the legislative clock winds down.

The tone of the past two weeks on some issues is a vast departure from the first 110 days of the session, which many lawmakers described as the friendliest in their tenures.

As the Legislature hits the homestretch, stakes are raised for lawmakers jockeying to position their bills.

“The final 30 days will certainly test the relationships of the House,” said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. “But that's to be expected. This is not a chamber where things are done in a very demure type of style.”

Indeed, the propensity for the House to escalate into heated shouting matches is nothing new.

Last session, the vitriol ran deep as hot-button issues like redistricting, Voter ID and a measure that requires a sonogram before an abortion seemingly dominated discourse in the lower chamber.

This time, lawmakers have avoided much of the bloodletting that characterized the past two sessions, mainly because red meat political issues have been absent from the floor.

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“There has been a lot of wrestling, tugging and pulling behind the scenes,” Martinez Fischer said. “We all recognized we have to put our best foot forward to roll up our sleeves and get things done.”

The session's lull was officially fractured last week when fireworks broke out over a routine bill to allow the lottery commission to continue operating.

Lawmakers first voted to abolish the state agency, only to be whipped by House leadership and ultimately relent.

Bad blood from last session's voter ID debate was rekindled when Republicans used their majority to push through a measure aimed at cracking down on ballot harvesting. In the process, Republicans shot down every amendment offered by Democrats, resulting in one of the first party line votes of the session.

On Monday, state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, stopped dead in its track a heated debate on a plan to tap $2 billion for water projects by invoking a point of order. In doing so, Turner derailed a top priority for Republican leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry and House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

“This is all part of the process,” said state Rep. Allan Ritter, R-Nederland, who authored the water plan. “When the skirmish is over, for me it's over. I have no problem with any member standing up and making their voice heard or voting their district.”

Even if Republicans aren't harboring hard feelings toward Democrats for tanking the water bill, the session's final weeks will be choc full of opportunities for House lawmakers to get nasty.

Moving forward, Republican leaders in the House say they plan to push through their party's goals and to expect divisive topics like pro-life bills, gun proposals and a measure to require drug tests for some unemployment benefit recipients to hit the floor.

Redistricting also could make a late-session appearance in the House, if a plan to make interim maps permanent passes the Senate.

“We'll have much of that come together in the month of May and some of the harmonious nature of the flow of the session might be strained for that reason,” said state Rep. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican and the chairman of the House GOP caucus. “These bills are definitely going to raise the bar for the definition of how we finish out the session.”

Republicans will get a shot Saturday to push through several pieces of gun legislation that could divide the chamber. That includes a controversial proposal to allow college students with concealed handgun licenses to tote their pistols on campus.

Democrats are keenly aware that Republicans can — and eventually will — use their strength in numbers to push through the party's agenda.

They're just hoping some of the bipartisanship developed earlier in the session can be maintained.

“In many ways, we'll be tested to see whether or not we maintain that harmony and bipartisan level of support,” Turner said. “There's definitely a willingness and desire to finish the session like we started, working in collaboration with the other side.”